Life of Bryan

Since I’ve been having some issues with my Leviton smart switches, I decided to get a few Matter enabled light bulbs. I know this was the promise of Matter, but setup was a breeze compared to the switches. Here’s to hoping they last—physically, and from a firmware perspective.

When the office mini split is right above your cube. I generally run pretty warm, but my ears feel like they’re going to fall off.

In my mind, James Earl Jones is Darth Vader reading the Bible. Growing up, my friend (and the drummer in my band) used to borrow his mom’s van for practice. In it, she had the unabridged Bible on tape, as read by JEJ. I couldn’t separate Vader from the experience of listening. What an icon. RIP.

As an urban planner, I wish Apple would start highlighting good urban design and human-scale infrastructure in their screensavers instead of flybys of automobile infrastructure (e.g. huge California freeways) or mega-scale, unsustainable building patterns (e.g. Dubai). Bigger is not better. #apple

One thing I like more about Threads over Mastodon and Bluesky is that you can post up to 10 photos, and you just swipe left on the post to see more. This is a winning design, the type that drives adoption. Too bad they don’t show up that way in the fediverse!

Not sure how I missed it before, but I watched Prey (2022) tonight, prequel to the Predator series. I needed something I didn’t have to think too much about, and it fit the bill. I’ve always liked hunters as an idea, so my bar is pretty low. For what it was, I enjoyed it.

We are pretty much addicted to Himalayan Dumplings by Kyikyi in Beaverton, Oregon. The noodles, the dumplings, the hand pies…all so good.

Ultimately, what it’s going to boil down to for me in terms of social media platform adoption, is the moderation tools. Both Threads and Bluesky have the ability to hide replies for everybody and detach quotes. It’s awesome for de-platforming trolls and mean people!

There’s this spot on my bathroom floor where, if I move my scale there before hopping on, I weigh like a pound less. What can I say, I love lying to myself!

S: I was born in August, I’m a Leo.
P: What’s a Leo, mom?
S: It means I’m bold.
P: You’re not bald mom, dad is!

I wish the west coast would get on with that whole high-speed rail thing. Tijuana to Vancouver, and all points in between, we want trains.